The Silly Complaints Fans Had About The Initial Casting Of Three Key ‘Game Of Thrones’ Characters

When you’re putting a television show or movie together that based on existing source material, you often run into a problem with fans who already have an image of who they think particular characters should look like. For a book series as popular as A Song of Ice and Fire, with fans who are as heavily invested in the series, that’s obviously going to be a huge hurdle to overcome in the casting process.

Hell, despite four seasons of brilliant casting, showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss still face criticism with every new casting. Remember how much sh*t the show received just last year for casting Pedro Pascal as The Red Viper because Pascal wasn’t black? A year later, after quickly become a fan favorite, Pascal is the show’s lone entrant into the Best Guest Actor category at the Emmys.

Point being: Trust Benioff and Weiss. They know what they’re doing. In fact, they knew all along, even in the beginning when they were getting mountains of sh*t from fans about the casting of Cersei, Jamie, and Daenerys. They discussed the criticism they faced during the casting process at the Cannes Lions panel yesterday via Page Six:

“When Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister) was cast, people complained she was a brunette, people actually complained when we cast Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jamie Lannister) because his nose isn’t perfect, and people complained when we cast Emilia Clarke as Daenerys because the character in the book is like 13 and she’s 23 or 24. I started tearing my hair out, and we realized if we were to keep our sanity, we’d have to stop looking at everything.”

It was accidentally portrayed incest rape, because Alex Graves apparently doesn’t understand what rape is. But a 13 year old would have been a bridge too far even for him. Remember when people lost their minds after Dakota Fanning portrayed an 11 year old getting raped in a movie?

I’ve read the books, but I continue to think that complainey bookreaders are the worst (except when it comes to the character from the epilogue of book 3…I was dissappointed by that too).

If they tried to appease bookreaders, this show would have been cancelled in Season 1,because:
A)They would have cast inferior actors in a misguided attempt to match appearances exactly.
B)Multiple scenes would have dragged, and bored viewers to death. Some things simply do not
translate from the page to the screen.

I agree, but what adapted to a different media project doesn’t illict knee-jerk reactions from the original’s fans? I really haven’t seen that many major complaints, other than minor “I would have done this differently” grumblings from book readers (I will admit, this is the only site that I read GoT related content on). The only time I see the absurd, nitpicky, complaints are when they’re highlighted in posts like this.

@irishda I don’t remember that (maybe my brain blocked it out since it sounded so terrible). But I do like show Tyrion much better than book Tyrion. He was way more creepy towards Sansa on their marriage night before his conscience gets the better of him. Also:

!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!

He has sex with a slave girl that clearly does not want to have sex with him. I hope they end up omitting that, too.

Nobody complained because they didn’t cast a black actor as Oberyn. The complaint was that the Dornish are a roughly equivalent culture to Arabs (or more specifically, Muslim-occupied Spain) in the books, so they were expecting a Middle Eastern actor. It’s not much of a beef, and Pascal was fantastic, but that wasn’t the nature of the complaint for people who were mad about the casting.

I always felt Martin’s Westeros was basically the UK (the North), France (the South) and Spain (Dorne) all stuck together and removed from the rest of Europe. The free cities I always imagined were based on the Italian city states.

The Dornish bastards are called “Sand” and Sunspear and Dornish cities are described as being surrounded by deserts and half the plots revolve around water gardens. Readers can be forgiven for expecting Arab/Persian lands because that’s exactly what Martin was describing.

Well the show is pretty fucking racist. The first black person on the show immediately expressed his desire to violently rape a white woman (Cersei). And the 2nd black person fucked over Dany something awful. The only good black people on the show now seem to be a Slave, and a Hand Maiden with no agency of her own.

So yeah this show is racist as fuck, but I guess they deserve Emmys over The Wire and it’s cast of Black people that make white HBO viewers very nervous.

@Yogi I know you’re disappointed with the show, I get it. But now you’re grasping at straws and selectively remembering things to fit with your view:

Salador San actually explains that he wants to seduce Cersei. Nothing in his statement suggests ‘violence’ (that you clearly added in). In fact, he EXPLICITLY states “I’m not going to rape her”. Dude’s just confident that he’ll win her over. He’s also one of the more popular characters with viewers.

Yea, Xaran Daxos (don’t feel like looking up correct spelling) was a dick, but so are 90% of the people on this show.

Grey Worm is no longer a slave. Missendei is straight from the books (described as having dark skin and dark hair, even if not explicitly black), so I don’t know what you’re complaining about there.

And I say say all of this as someone who was bothered by the Dany crowdsurfing scene at the end of Season 3 (mostly because a lot of the slaves are clearly described in the books as having caucasian-type features, so the producers subconsciously changed that to fall in line with their worldview).

If we end up meeting some of the Summer Islanders in season 5 (like we do in the books), would that make you happy?

I think Robb and Jon were the oldest at 15 or 16 and even Ned and Cat were only 33-35. Maybe people complained because they didn’t realize they see aging up everyone? I am glad they did it and they were able to get people like Sean Bean. I would have liked to see a smoking hot younger Catlyn though.

As for more episodes, it would be wonderful, and I would be very grateful, but there is just no financial incentive that makes sense. It’s an incredibly expensive show as it is, and 2 more episodes a season would not sell more subscriptions, nor would it sell more after air content (mostly sold as a season, rather than individual episodes). Since they don’t use an advertising model, I just don’t see it happening… but good God it would make me happy.

I was glad when they recast Tommen, because the previous actor seemed a little dim, but I hope they don’t recast Myrcella. Aimee Richardson is really cool (on Twitter), and still looks the part. Though I guess I don’t really know much about her acting acumen.

What I am wondering based off of the clips I have read of winds of winter…when will they re-cast Arya Stark? The things I read her doing needs to be an adult actress.

There are a lot of things I wish were included in the show from the books but to me a book reader needs to take it as a new experience and not compare it to the books. I LOVE watching my favorite book characters come to life on the big screen…Although I really disliked the fact they removed the final dialogue between Jamie Lannister and Tyrion. I really would have given the audience a final amazingly emotional scene with Tyrion hearing his brother confess his 1st wife was not a whore and it was his Dad’s plan to tell him that. Then Tyrion lying to jamie in an attempt to hurt him by saying he did kill his son Joffrey and naming all the individuals that Cersie has slept with while he was gone ( creating that important wedge between Jamie and Cersie.

Maisie will be 18 by next season, I think. I was really glad they left out the part about Tysha. That was kind of a shitty plot device, imo, to unnecessarily destroy the only bit of love left in Tyrion’s life. Sadistic. Jaime can find out about Cersei’s philandering in some other way.

Tysha completely changes everything. Its a huge deal and needed for all three of those characters to have the depth we’ve come to expect. Without Jaime revealing that to Tyrion it makes no fucking sense for him to run up to Tywin’s room. Why risk guards catching you or anything else without an emotional gut punch to make him not think clearly? Tyrion is too smart to detour like that and risk his chance to live.

I really hope they don’t make Maisie get naked next season, 18 or not. I really like her and she seems too much like a kid. Seeing her naked would just feel too weird. I’m sure she’ll be a lovely young woman when she grows up, but it’s too soon.

@Bizarro Stormy agree 100%. What you mentioned was spot on but i think that scene also adds some depth to tyrions character.

Hearing that exchange gives you some mental insight Into tyrions back story. Psychologically infused self loathing brought to you in part by Tywin. It is a tragic story but it adds so much more emotion to that final scene.

it also doesn’t help that Shae was built up to be a romance, then basically left for a shallow whore again, then she tries to kill Tyrion and he has to kill her. Explain to me why he’s sensitive in the next scene when Tywin calls her a whore? She actually was a whore, and one he just murdered.

They gave no emotional resolution to Tyrion/Shae, they just starting kill,ing each other. You can’t set up a hooker with a heart of gold story and then just revert it back to shallow gold digging whore. They just wanted Tywin to die on the shitter and couldn’t see a way around it. They should have had Tywin holding her hostage and killing her when Tyrion threatens him. It would have been way different but would have lined up with their changes. They just needed to commit to it if that’s what they wanted to do.

@Bizarro Stormy, He’s sensitive because he loves her. Finding out something terrible about someone might make you angry or not want to be with them, but that doesn’t erase those kind of feelings instantaneously. You might see her that way yourself, and want bad things to happen to them, but the lingering emotions still make you protective. It’s something you see all the time with recently divorced guys, if the wife cheated on him. He may call her a whore and rail against her, but gets a bit touchy if his buddies say the same. Now switch someone you ostensibly like (friend) with your super judgmental father who recently sentenced you to death and is now nailing said wife and I think the scene tracks just fine.

@Bizarro – Tyrion’s also too smart to fall in love with a Barry wore like Shae, but he did it anyway. Too smart to bring her to King’s Landing in spite of the inevitability of the way that ended — him destroying their relationship to save her life — but he did that anyway. Tyrion’s emotions sometimes overpower his intellect. I really think the show’s version works just fine in that respect. And again, Jaime can find out about Cersei’s philandering in some other manner. Everyone’s all set.

I’m a book reader. And, as a book reader, I’ve learned that I have to detach the picture that’s in my mind from the adaptation that the show makers are crafting. You can’t make the books as they are written or you’ll have 40-50 episode seasons full of stuff that would bore the audience — fine dining! riding! heraldry! more riding! — and then I’d have no more show.

This is Benioff’s & Weiss’ version of ASOIAF and I dig it. And anything I don’t like, there’s always the books.

I really pictured someone more swarthy for Oberyn, like Naveen Andrews. But of course, Pedro Pascal was perfect and we should all shut our damn whore mouths. Except about the Myrcella recast – it bugs me because Aimee Richardson is such a dorky fan of the show and a great ambassador for it. And the girl they are casting is the same age! Previous recasts have been either because the actors were not willing/able to continue or there was a significant aging happening. To recast someone the same age just seems cruel.

the red viper was black? thats kinda awesome…and i dont think Daenerys being young and going through her storyline would pass on TV even HBO…but im wonder what actor could play the red viper if they kept him black…now more interested in the book

Anyone who is bashing GoTs readers for their casting gripes can suck it. hypocrites, all of you….everyone has has groaned at some casting decision at some point, the Joker, James Bond, Robocop, etc etc basically anyone from a source material like books, novels, remakes

With that said, my only casting problem has been Mance, not because of the actor, which from what ive read is an amazing character actor and great in everything…I just pictured him younger and more physically imposing, just more dominating on the screen….but, he hasn’t had near the face time to really make a solid opinion….Ehh, I’m mainly just still bitter because McNulty from The Wire turned down the role

Wow. I don’t even know what to say. Were you hoping for Idris Elba to play Littlefinger? Yea, that makes a lot of sense. Or maybe Glyn Turman could have played Yohn Royce (he could keep his character’s same last name!)

Yeah, I definitely have made a few such complaints. But I think I look back on virtually all of them and deem them just as dumb as I deem the complaints mentioned here. The only example I can currently think of is the recent Fantastic Four thing. Not that I got all “Boo black guy!” angry about it, but I did say something about it, like analytically, but even that was probably too much. Oh, I also said something about Gal Gadot not being buff enough. Who gives a shit, JJ? Reserve judgment until after you see the thing.

I think a lot of those complaints stem from the excruciating detail in which the characters are described in the books. By descriptions alone, determinations can be made as to the lineage of several characters, chiefly King Robert’s bastards. Still, the showrunners make it easy enough to know who is who.

The complaint about Clarke is legit. But, then again, no one wants to see fourteen year olds forced into marriage and having rough sex with her husband. A complaint I had about the show in general is that all the kids appear much older than they are supposed to be.

Complaints like “she’s a brunette” are always so funny to me. If only there were some way for a television production to overcome the limitations of someone’s physical attributes…

It’s particularly funny when they choose to focus on the one that’s probably the easiest to change.

Remember they purposely aged up everyone for the show. Robb and Jon were 14 at the start of the books, and like 17 in the show. Rickon was 3 in the books, and they clearly say he’s 6 in show (not that Rickon matters yet). Also Joffrey was 12 in the books,and 16 in the show. Arya was 7 in the books, Sansa was 12, etc. I think they knew a TV audience wouldn’t be able to stomach all the crazy shit happening to those kids. Bad enough reading about it….much worse actually seeing it.